Apparatus for coating eggs for breaking



S'e'pt'.- 27,` 1949. G. F. HoDsoN APPARATUS FOR COATINGKEGGS FOR BREAKING original Fiied March 3o; 1945 ff/WM Patented Sept. 27, 1949 o, exterminio;l

George F. Hodson,` Altus, kla.',assignor tovWil-V son & Co. Inc., a corporation of* Delaware originar application Machk so, leia'sefial No. 585,706. Divided and this application March' 18,1346, Serial No, 655,323

4 claims. (c1. 91744) Y This invention relates to decontaminating eggs for breaking and more particularly to an apparatus for coating unwashed eggs with a thin plastic layer of thermoplastic material prior to breaking.

Eggs, when received from the producer, are

frequently or generally extremely dirty and this dirt is of various types which are contaminated to various'de'grees. The dirt may be removed by washing but a thorough Washing of the eggs involves considerable labor. Moreover there are many eggswhich have small holes or cracks or checks which cannot be washed without having the wash water penetrate within the shell. Such eggs, therefore, varenot washed' in commercial operations.

, It has now been discovered that the contamination caused by dirt upon the surface of the egg may be greatly reduced by the application to the unwashed eggs of a thin layer of thermoplastic material immediately prior to breaking. Checked eggs or other eggs in which the shell is broken or incomplete maycalso be treated by this process. In commercial operations a test of the process indicated that enough otherwise unusable eggs can be saved by the present process to pay for the entire cost of the operation on all eggs.

The drawings indicate an apparatus suitable for the application of the plastic coating.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the coating apparatus, partially in section; and Figure 2 is a top plan View, likewise partially in section, of the same apparatus.

As there shown, the wax II is maintained Within the container I Il and heating means I2 are provided for keeping it warm. The wax is pumped through the line I3 by the pump I4 to a spray device I5. The spray device is immediately above tracks 20 down which the eggs are rolled. The spray is covered by a hood 2l and hot water is supplied through the line 22 to the header 23. A plurality of heating coils 24, connected to the header 23, form the tracks down which the eggs pass. Hot water and/or steam enters the pipes 24 from the header 23 and passes out through the line 25. The heating means I2 beneath the wax level in the container III is likewise heated by hot of the tracks. 1 They thus pass under the spray in such a manner as-to expose the entire egg to treatment. VThe pipes 24 are suitably 1/2 inch pipes. lThe pipes :extend about two-thirds of the Way or about 4 feet across the tank, the sprayer occupyingapproximately the first two feet of this distance, and the vlatter 2 feet providing for drainage of thevwax from the eggs while they are still warm. A suitable slope for the tracks is about 1A inch `dropl for each running foot. The latter portion of the guide is made up of any suitable track members 30 which are unheated. Thel eggs are delivered, through a .wall if desired, to the breaking table 3|. I Y

The wax employed is preferably that known aS poultry pulling wax. This is a wax ynow much used in the poultry industry for removal of feathers from birds. The wax should not contain more than 25% parain because it becomes too brittle With a greater proportion than that. The Wax is applied at a. temperature of 180-200 F., at which temperature it has some sterilizing effect due to the heat. The main value of the wax, however, is in providing a coating for the dirt so that it will not break loose from the shell when the egg is broken.

In many instances the dirt on an egg shell is in the form of large clumps or chunks. The wax does not penetrate through these dirt particles to the shell and it is, therefore, important that the wax retain some plasticity when the egg is broken or cut. It has been found that with poultry pulling wax, particularly where the breaking of the eggs is done shortly after the coating, the wax retained suiiicient plasticity to seal these clumps of dirt through the cut so that no dirt drops from the shell. Likewise it is desired that no Wax should shatter into the egg cups. This, however, is less serious because most of such shattered wax would be caught in the strainer.

It has been found that some eggs may be treated by this process even if the egg is leaking, provided that it is leaking from a crack where the shell edges are close together.

The egg may, of course, be dipped into hot Wax or may be caused to roll through a layer of wax, but the spray method is preferred for simplicity.

Various thermoplastic materials may be employed, provided they are molten at an appropriately low temperature and are non-plastic enough to break at handling temperatures. As already pointed out, the wax should retain a substantial degree of plasticity at the time it is cut with their long axes transverse to the long axis or broken. For reasons of economy, para'in base waxes are preferred. The fruit industry employs an edible wax for waxing fruit which may be employed for the present purposes.

In general it is preferred to coat all of the egg with a thermoplastic material, but under some conditions thev endsof; the eggzmayberdisregarded or coated dessLcareflly. In such casesihowever, additional care must be taken to fracture or break the egg Within the area covered by the thermo- A 10 ingr, openings therebetween, Wax spraying means plastic material. Y Y t This application is a division`my co-epending application, Serial No. 585,706, led Marclf'30,V

1945, now Patent No. 2,439,808,ziissuedf'qkpril,

The foregoing detailed descriptiomhas .been given for clearness of understandingsonly,.aridno unnecessary limitations 'should be uriderstooijlV 1 tracks .along fwhich ,the eggs -roll,-;saiditracksrfhav .ing openingsitherebetween -andzbeingzadapted'zfto support the l eggs,v wax spraying,` -meansf immediately aabove' the :tracksandi-extendingsubstan- .tially parallel thereto ,fsaid ,spraying sneans- :being adapted toispray-,fwax overa substantial ;distance falongthe.trackwherebyfan eggrolling alongssaid Strackfwillw'be subjected to @Waist-spray :,onfall sides :.thereof, a waxzcon'tainer beneaththetrackrrneans v:for heatingaawaxftherein, means independent-,feci the i heated', :Wax 5in'. the container forgzheatingn at least a portionaof .thetrack;andfmeansvfon withdrawing heated wax from,-thefcontainen and de- ',liveringl it' to 'the' spraying" means.

2. `An apparatus asset -forth:infclairrrs1-niwhich 4 the spray means is adapted to spray over a distance of approximately 2 feet.

3. An apparatus as set forth in claim 1 in which the spray means is adapted to spray over a dis- 5 tance of approximately 2 feet and the open track v.extends for-.a distance aofi-approximately 2 feet beyond the spray. 1 A

4. Egg treating apparatus comprising inclined tracks along which the eggs roll, said tracks havsimmediately'- above the tracks and extending substantially parallel thereto, said spraying means beingradaptedftospray Wax over a substantial distancelalong the tracks whereby an egg rolling on 15 said track will lbesubjected to Wax spray on all j sidesthereoi, ,a first heating means for heating at-least'a portion of the track, a Wax container beneath the track, a second heating means independent of the rst heating means for heating 20 'wax in the container and means for withdrawing f Iheated `waxfrom ,the -containerf vandrfdeliveriiig it to the `Wax sprayinglmeans.

GEORGE "QF, -IIQ-DSQN. RFERENCES CITEDy ``The following yreferences' are -of f `record '..inthe file oflthis patentz' UNITED STATES .VPA'IIETI'I'S 5,130 Number Name Date 1,696,703 yZellner .lDec. 25;,1928 1,985,843 Skinner.; 198032511934 2,014,646, Christionet al. giS'ept. 17,1935 Y ,2,128,028 )Hampton 1:Aug;;23, 1938 235 1 2,153,296 Brogden ;)Apri 4;.'1939 l i 1 t 

